Couple confesses in death of baby

Two young lovers pleaded guilty in a Beijing court to killing their newborn baby and trying to destroy the evidence.

Wang Pei, 23, was charged with homicide, and her boyfriend, Qiao Yang, 21, was charged with destruction of evidence, according to the Beijing No 1 People's Procuratorate.

The two stood trial at the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court on Tuesday.

Wang, a native of Hebei province who worked for a drugstore in the capital's Haidian district, allegedly stabbed the baby boy with scissors four times, including once in his chest, after the birth at around 8 am on April 23, the prosecutors said, adding that the infant was confirmed dead at noon.

After the baby's birth, Wang called Qiao, a college student in Hebei, and asked him to pack the infant in clothes and bed sheets. Later, they moved to a hotel near Wang's apartment, prosecutors said.

The next morning, Qiao allegedly discarded the baby in a dustbin next to the hotel, aiming to destroy evidence, prosecutors said.

Wang and Qiao confessed to their crimes during the trial.

"I was filled with fear when my baby was born. He was crying loudly and I had no idea what to do," Wang said. "I was also afraid that others would know I gave birth, so I grabbed the scissors on my desk in panic and stabbed his chest."

Qiao said that he came to Beijing from his college when Wang told him she had given birth. He said he found the infant's chest was bloody as he packed it into the clothes.

"Wang told me the baby was dead and let me pack it. I saw the scissors at the time," he said. "We had little communication in the hotel, and I dropped the package at around 11 am the next day after the baby was born."

The court did not pronounce a judgment on Tuesday.

It is not the first case that Beijing courts have heard involving a young mother killing her own baby.

In November, Wang Hongyu, 25, was sentenced to four years in prison for homicide after she strangled her newborn baby and discarded him in a trash can in the city's Daxing district in July 2014, according to Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court.

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